The Virginian-Pilot to outsource most newsroom page design

The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., has announced that it will outsource much of its newsroom print page design to an outside vendor.

The Pilot previously said it was considering taking this action as a way to save money in an era where newspapers are seeking to grow online while fighting a decline in print revenue.

Local stories will continue to be edited in The Pilot's newsroom, and all decisions on which local, national and world stories to run also will be made locally. In addition, the paper's front page will continue to be designed in South Hampton Roads for the Wednesday through Sunday papers.

The Pilot will be working with Pagemasters North America, a subsidiary of The Canadian Press. It currently designs three prominent Canadian newspapers and does production work for other papers.

The outsourcing, which begins in the spring, will lead to layoffs for four full-time and two part-time employees in the newsroom.